I climbed a mountain yesterday. That was fun.
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"On the ninth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
9 Ladies Dancing
8 Maids a Milking
7 Swans a Swimming
6 Geese a Laying . . ."
Ace twitched in his sleep, frowning as Luffy left. Locks growled, her eyes tight shut.
"Shishishi . . ."
oOo
"Hunter . . . oh, Hunter . . ." Locks murmured, poking Ace in the arm. He grunted, but otherwise didn't react.
"Hunter . . . Ace. Wake up, Ace." She said a little louder, poking him harder. Still nothing. So with a sigh, she yelled "Wake up! Luffy's eating all the MEAT!"
"Huh? Wha's goin' on?!" Ace said, disorientated. Locks ignored the question, as she had more important matters to attend to.
"What are we supposed to do with the cows?" she asked. Ace stared at her.
"You mean, I wasn't dreaming?"
oOo
After counting the geese (all six seemed to be afraid of Locks . . . wonder why?), Ace and Locks applied themselves to the problem of cows. Maisy, Daisy and Daffodil (Luffy named them) were no trouble at all, calmly chewing their cud. They had already been tied to trees by a couple of the bandits before they all fled.
Dandelion, Caramel and Cream were easily rounded up and tied to trees as well.
Clover and Clarabelle were a different matter entirely. They stood with heads low, pawing the ground and mooing lowly. Ace was a little nervous, truth be told. The cows were a lot bigger than he was, and he was hungry too.
Locks, on the other hand . . . was asleep. Ace scowled at the young dragon taking random naps was his thing (not that he could help it) not hers. Dustan mooed louder. Ace slowly turned his head just in time to see the bovine-
"Aaargh!" he screamed as Dustan chased him. Locks opened one eye, but closed it again when she saw that she'd caught Clarabelle's attention. Perhaps playing dead was best for now . . .
oOo
Must. Resist. The Cuteness.
"Pleeease?" Luffy begged, giving Makino his best puppy eyes.
Makino groaned. She was no match for Luffy.
"Fine," she said with a weary smile, "I'll just have to ask my friends first and-"
"Yosh!" Luffy yelled in triumph.
oOo
Ace wasn't entirely sure when he'd got on the road to Fuchsia, but hell would freeze over before he stopped running.
"Aaargh!" he screamed.
"Mooouuh!" Dustan bellowed, tossing her horns as she galloped after the boy.
oOo
Locks was making poached eggs. Poached goose eggs to be exact.
Sitting beside her like a dog, Clarabelle carefully watched her every move.
"And now, you add some salt." Locks said. The cow nodded seriously, mooing something to her cow friends. They all mooed back. Clarabelle mooed at Locks.
"Soon." The girl chuckled. Inwardly, she was thinking "this has got to be the strangest thing I've ever done . . ."
oOo
Makino giggled, putting the last touch of make-up on one of her friend's faces.
"We're almost ready, Luffy!" she called.
"Yosh!" he yelled back, "I'll go get Locks'n'Ace! Gum-Gum . . ."
A door slammed shut as Luffy left.
"ROCKET!"
Makino winced slightly at the volume with which the word was spoken.
oOo
Ace was just innocently running away from Dustan when yet another cow landed right in front of him in a cloud of dust. His eyes widened as he skidded to a stop.
Bonk!
Locks whacked Luffy on the head with a pot of poached eggs, dusting herself off with the other as she asked the bewildered cow "You 'kay, Clarabelle?"
The cow lowed in reply, glaring at Luffy.
"That's good. Have an egg." Locks said, feeding the cow a poached egg as Ace continued to stare.
Then Dustan caught up with them and they all started running, suddenly very eager to see nine ladies spinning.
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Three more chapters to go!
